Homecoming floats, T-shirt designs and officer elections are all typical discussions in a high school club meeting, but add in discussions about the Special Olympics and helping at a dance for children with disabilities, and a club recognized for its service to those with special needs appears.

The Civitans started a group in Johns Creek earlier this year, and local high school students have taken the lead to start Junior Civitan clubs at Johns Creek, Chattahoochee and North View high schools. Civitans are dedicated to service throughout the community, especially concerning people with special needs, and the high schoolers often have unique opportunities to bring that service to other students within their own schools.

“I thought it would be a good experience to help people,” said Johns Creek High School 10th grader Christian Hickey. Along with serving as vice president for his school’s new Junior Civitan Club, Hickey has experienced working with people who have special needs. His brother is autistic, and Hickey said he felt it was important to come alongside people with needs to help them succeed.

“I think it’s a good idea to support people like my little brother,” he said.

The Johns Creek High School Junior Civitan Club has 31 members who have already started volunteering to help with Special Olympics teams and specially-designed dances for people with developmental disabilities.

“I hope we can adopt one or two projects this year that we can really be proud of and kind of grow from that,” said Johns Creek High School Junior Civitan sponsor Chris Bray. “This being the first year we want to establish ourselves in the community that we’ve accomplished some things and help people and work towards more in the future.”

Bray works at Johns Creek and Centennial high schools in transitional services where he helps students with disabilities into life after high school. He also coaches a local Special Olympics basketball team, giving the Junior Civitans an opportunity to jump in and start volunteering as soon as possible.

“These guys are great and their desire to want to help people is great,” he said of the Junior Civitans.

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